Enter The Cove. Organic. Fresh. Real. Buying from local growers, The Cove makes gourmet food that is real. Located not far from the San Antonio burger institution Chris Madrid’s, which feeds off artery pollution, The Cove takes a fresh modern stand on food production. That stand has garnered attention from the Food Network’s Guy Fieri and was declared the best burger in San Antonio, 5th in the state by Texas Monthly.

So what’d doublecheese think of the SOL ( sustainable/organic/local) revolution that includes serving soda containing no high fructose corn syrup. Yum. Yum. Yes. And yum. A taste of the 09er burger has doublecheese reeling in delight for a goodness definable in every bite as a bite of the all natural product of people who do things conscience of the balance of nature. The burger selection is constructed thoughtfully, putting inconsideration the gourmet and still evading the pretention that can tag along in these matters. The patty is juicy and cooked with skill. Sweet potato and potato fries are available and savory. The sauce that accompanied my burger, although never defined, had an interesting zest that was spiced perfectly and made my sweet potato fries inhalable.

Something that also needs to be mentioned is the environment. Compared to an Austin dive, The Cove does have something fun about it. Maybe it’s the ping-pong table, the kid playground, the live music or the offer to do your laundry and wash your car their if you need to- that’s right maybe The Cove does have it all. Every 2nd Thursday is wine-tasting Thursday. Every 3rd Thursday is beer tasting Thursday and the fees for these events are decent.

My qualm with The Cove is the pricing. The menu is awesome with a seriously awesome shrimp taco under it’s belt and several other items on the menu that demand several lip-licking moments. But a ten dollar burger has never been my dream pricing. Maybe it’s telling of the economic times and maybe it’s just the price of buying local and dealing with growers who are hurting in the food inc times. While doublecheese has yet to return to Smashburger, for the deliciously over-priced, doublecheese definitely will be returning for the feel good burger revolution.

Now, the final count. Ideals, taste and price combined, doublecheese is compelled to give The Cove a 9. The burger is great. They are one of the best burgers in the San Antonio area. I say: Eat it and it local.

The Cove
606 W Cypress St
San Antonio, TX 78212
(210) 227-2683

The Apple Store is your burger home away from home. Nestled next to Love Creek Orchards, The Apple Store serves up a lazy good burger. I don’t mean to say every worker there was lacking around, but this isn’t the place to go if you’re in a rush. Nevermind the detour, the Apple Store wants you to relax and take it easy and not check your emails every ten minutes to see if the world is actually falling apart without you. This burgertorium makes no apologies for taking it easy and for definitely not being fast food.

And is it worth it? All that god forbidden non-21st century analog undownloaded sit there?! Could it possibly be more burger zen than a good game of tap tap revenge and angry birds?

Yeah. ‘Cause it’s hot. And you’re in the middle of apple, Tx. So, whatever, relax. The decorum is as mom and pop apple pie as you can get- for reeeeeeeeelz. But you want it. And when your burger does show up you’ve soaked in a good two and a half decades of too adorable for words.

Now to the beef, right? I’ll admit, the bun’s a sweetie. If you’re ordering the the Spicy Pepper Jack burger then I definitely recommend going ” all the way” (wink) with the spicy jalapeño bun (even more awkward wink) which is actually the Sheila Partin’s jalapeño bun. Sure, Sheila. But really. The meat is crazy fresh, crazy delish, and crazy awesome. Your choice of cheese that comes nicely melted and a bag of chips and bam, a summer treat have you! Although you have to order the fries separate, the seasoning on those fried papas makes the separate order worth it. Beverages are free lemonade refills as well as tea and sodas available by the can.

So doublecheese says, sweet bun and awesome adventure warrant a nice plump 7.5. That sweet bun was a little tiresome, though, but Doublecheese will be returning for some more of that sweet country EAT IT.

Love Creek Orchards
State Highway 16 North
Medina, Texas 78055

Enter Willie’s Icehouse and Grill. A Dallas rooted chain that flowers fried greasy whatever. Willie’s has opened a nice burger and icehouse out in Leon Springs, not far from the original Rudy’s Bar-B-Que. Placed on the access road of I-10, Willie’s does an amazing job of blocking out the world. You can sit on the decently sized patio for hours and feel only the same pressure the man selling peaches from the back of his pick-up might feel.

Enough of the welcoming atmosphere. Now, the grub! My opener was Willie’s queso, specialized with taco meat, accompanied by a chunky salsa and thin, lightly salted chips. This appetizing cast, my friends, stole the show! Creamy queso and deliciously seasoned taco meat stand strongly alone. However, when you co-mingle the salsa, with the delicious other pair, you get an addictive dip. ADDICTIVE.

Into my second Blue Moon, poured in a fresh, frosted mug, my Hickory Burger arrived. The circumference on this burger was intimidating. The accenting BBQ sauce is definitely meant to be accented with a cold beer. The onions are cut and grilled to embrace both the sweet and sharp onion flavors. A strong taste that overtook all these flavors was the extremely well done patty. The center of the patty was cooked and tasted awesome, the outside tasted like the burnt crumble of meat that stayed on the grill all day.

The cheese, the beer, the queso- an amazingly deliciously meal. The burger, hard to enjoy. So, although I do recommend Willie’s for a peaceful patio and beer retreat, I need to say: make sure you request a medium well patty. So, the burger at a 5.7, I say Don’t Eat It! But feel free to drink and dip it all up!

Willie’s Grill & Icehouse
Leon Springs
24200 IH 10 W
Leon Springs, TX 78257
210-698-5337

Now Babe’s does have quite a menu with burgers, wings, and even pizza. Also, just by mentioning the place i get many a response in the line of “great fried pickles,” ” beer specials are pretty good there,” and “ah, the onion rings are great, ya gotta git em.” So it was definitely a contender for burger bliss.

I ordered the Guacamole Cheeseburger and the guac was pretty delicious. What wasn’t delicious was all that lettuce. I mean there was a lot that i had to shovel out. Once that matter was settled though, I must say this burger was pretty darn good. The bun was buttered and greasy, the patty was pretty juicy and over all everything came together pretty well on this burger. As good as it was, it was just that, good. Nothing jumped out too big about this burger. It is big. The onion rings were pretty darn scrumptious. Thin and seasoned so well, those onion rings at times out shined the burger. Fries were also a shining point of the meal. I couldn’t resist the shake and i don’t know if i ever will be able to because it was so darn good. Creamy, thick and picturesque, i’m ready for the summer with a shake like that.

Babe’s is a good stop for burger lovers. It’s got a sports/college atmosphere and the prices are pretty good, especially if you hit some of those lunch specials. I’m givin it a 7. Although not high on the list of eateries to return to I definitely suggest you EAT IT.

Babe’s Old Fashioned Food
4535 Fredericksburg Rd
San Antonio, TX
78201
210-732-6666

My first burger stop was a chain that is expanding wildly and tastily. Five Guys Burger and Fries is the proprietor of one of my favorite burgers (Slagosaurus, we were gonna get married and make out all the time together, but then i ate him) and although the San Antonio Five Guys at the Quarry was a bit of a disappointment, I still had fond memories. As my first burger in New York, I give it thumbs up up up and up. Twas delicious and I stand by my recommendation to one and all.

Shake Shack. A burger place that has it’s own iPhone app, deserves it. This burger felt great going down, fresh, organic, and simple. In a big concrete town, this burger makes you feel at home. Crinkle cut fries are absolutely delicious. Shake Shack gets thumbs up, hands down, it’s too legit.

And here comes another fast food chain lounge, wait, what? Lounge? Pop Burger is the answer to your need to be too New York cool and still satisfy my burger craving needs. Why? Because it’s a pop culture cool lounge that serves drinks and gets freaky, and it also serves little pops of burgers. I say watch out, those onion rings are not right. But every other poppin’ thing is just that- POP! Burger!

And now a New York upper east side establishment that keeps the yups on a comin’, J.G. Melon. The first thing I smelt in this place, the bar-b-que sauce. It smelt like sex. I infact twittered, while waiting the 45 minute wait in the ultra-cramp spaced: “Waiting@ jg melon for a table. Burgers smell like bacon/cheese/BBQ sauce & beef met @ a gay club and got weird w/ eachother. In a good way.” And it did! And all the tight warm space and the suits and the ritz and whatever else was totally worth it because that burger was sooooo rad. Added a side bbq sauce and got busy. Yelp has it listed as a $$ ( that’s a double chaching), and i guess it is, but man that sauce was spectacular and this burger in this fine New York establishment won my heartbelly.

Other than the burgers there wasn’t too many great things in New York and so I’d really suggest just going for the burgers. YEAH RIGHT. Go to New York and EAT IT in that glorious beautiful awesome place! or else.

Greetings burgermeisters! Let’s address the counter culture revolution, an American symbol of the working man, of coffee and pie, of darn good food being made on a time-seasoned grill.  My Austin burger review comes from a cafe that now inhabits one of Austin’s former legendary diners, now simply named, Counter Cafe. And trust me, it’s just that, a counter and a few tables, this tiny place open daily from 8am-4pm embodies the hole-in-the-wall-dive-joint entirely.  However tiny, patrons definitely don’t mind a wait to try some of the home diner style menu with a very refreshing gourmet twist. This place was brought to my attention by UT student by day, Lauren Miller, and her Aggie boyfriend, Sergio Guerrero, who highly recommended the burger and suggested staying away from the extra $3 bacon.

Counter Cafe, right off of Lamar and Sixth (across from Book People), is easy to miss.  But the tiny atmosphere creates an interesting warm feel, sometimes double sitting tables for need of the room (thanks to Austin and Texas hospitality, this wasn’t very awkward). Fast-moving and turning tables very quickly the diner definitely gives you an idea of the quick counter culture of Americana. In most restaurants the condiments are kept down to the standard mustard, ketchup, salt, pepper, and napkins always positioned in a clean and organized manner when turning tables.  Counter Cafe moves too fast to worry about these details and while the tables are clean, the array of sirracha, mayo, mustard, coarse sea salt, and ground pepper are all splayed about and ready to be used.

Not thinking twice about it I ordered the burger, sans bacon. My comrade however, a definite sucker for bacon in all its glory, went straight for the nitrate-free three dollar bacon. Ingredients are all natural, organic, and locally sourced when available.  You can order a wheat or white bun, sweet potato fries, cup of soup, seasonal fruit cup, or house salad.  I opted for a wheat bun and sweet potato fries, which Lauren highly recommended. I’ll tell you, as tiny as the place is and as gourmet as some of the other menu items are, they sure now how to make a simple, delicious burger.  I was amazed at how well it was cooked, the buttered and toasted bun, the fresh ingredients, and the interesting choice of bibb lettuce.  Pulling the ketchup and mayo from the condiment array and splattering them on the burger made it amazing.  The sweet potato fries had a perfect balance, not too sweet and seasoned with sea salt.  I devoured this baby whole, forced myself to go on to that one last delectable bite.  The Austin burger scene can be proud to add this to repertoire.  Although there was a bit of wait for the burger, you can see there are only two cooks in the kitchen with little more than elbow room. You can also openly see the care put into the food in as quick a manner as possible.

The reviews for this place in Texas Monthly’s issue of the 50 best burgers in Texas, Yelp, and the Austin Chronicle praise this little cafe. Going to give this swell joint an 8.5 and insist that you shove it in your mouth and EAT IT.

The Counter Cafe
626 N Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 708-8800
Hours: 8AM – 4PM Daily

This review is on my first burger of 2010 at the Elevation Burger on Great Hills Trail in Austin, Texas. This burgery is a purpose driven establishment that brings the burger back to the basics: Quality Food.  Elevation takes its business seriously, and burgers are its business. With an organic label on their ingredients and a commitment to the environment that is exhibited in their environmental structure the promise of a delicious burger is there. However, behind all these feel good, green, trendy notions could be a burger that doesn’t live up to it’s marketing genius, maybe.

My visit on January 1st was one filled with apprehension and high hopes.  The restaurant is located across from the Arboretum, a rather pleasant and moneycentric side of town.  The kind of place where you could market the green good life trends to yuppies and they’d eat it all up.  On my visit I tried to keep an eye on the locals and the staffing, and I was surprised and pleased with both.  This restaurant serves to the conscious Austin burger eater, a patron that believes in a better self as well as a better world in which the way to both are within our grasps. The staff was extremely nice and very helpful with all our burger questions and they seemed genuinely happy to be helping people and working hard. The actual experience of the restaurant was great. But all of that could fall through if the burger didn’t deliver.

The wait was decent, considering my burger was being made fresh from meat ground on the premises. When our burgers arrived I saw a perfectly sized burger that had a P. Terry’sesque feel to it.  Infact, the burger does resemble the Austin chain in several ways. Mainly because of the quality, organic seal on the ingredients and the simplicity of the burger.  This burger was amazing.  It was delicious and perfectly sized, not the kind of burger that has your gut evicting other organs for need of space. The patty, the fresh vegetables, the Elevation sauce (not Thousand Island but a sort of creamy tomato concoction), the simply stated bun all compiled an ensemble that made my taste buds fall into that deep burger LOVE. The fries, although were a bit too toasted, were impossible to stop devouring. All in all, my Elevation burger was a great to start to 2010. Environmentally friendly, health conscience, and enjoyable in just about every way possible I’m happy Elevation started my year off.

I highly, highly recommend Elevation Burger to anyone looking for a delicious feel good treat. Rated on a scale of 1-10 this burger gets a highly deserved 9 and you absolutely must EAT IT.

Elevation Burger
9828 Great Hills Trail
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 608-4054

Hours of Operation:
Sun-Thurs: 11am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-10pm

I did it, meatandcheesebetweentwobunslovers, I am going to, after most likely much too long, graduate from Texas State University! GO BOBCATS! Moving on, to celebrate this moment I headed to Bigz Burger Joint right off of 1604 and Huebner here in San Antonio, Texas. This burger barn on the side of the way arouses mouth juices from the parking lot. There’s an aroma of tasty that made me want to run to the door.

At Bigz the patties are a ½ lb, which is decently sized. And the cheeses offered are American, Cheddar, Pepper Jack, Swiss, and Blue Cheese. Certain toppings cost extra like beer braised onions, avocado, pineapple, etc. I went for a single knowing it’d be filling. I went with American cheese because I was feeling pretty classic, until I saw that you can “Make it Dirty,” and then I did! At Bigz Burger Joint “making it dirty” means they’ll fry an egg and slap that sexy baby on your burger. Who could say no to that?

Sipping on my Dr. Pepper I enjoyed the barnesque décor and fair-like seating. There’s outdoor seating available during permitting weather and what seemed to be a pretty rad Party Barn as well as a small basketball court. This place seemed to be on the up and up. Then I got my burger, after I accidentally tried to steal this guy Clayton’s burger (sorry! and thanks for being cool about it), and things got juicy. And disappointing. Bigz does toast their buns, offer some fresh vegetable toppings, and fry a pretty mean egg. Bigz does NOT seem to season their patty much. Everything around the area was pretty swell, but the main act was pretty lame. Soooooo, what’s that about Bigz? Although, I did hear the Applewood Bacon is pretty tasty and “making it dirty” is only an extra dollar, I’m gonna need some burger seasoning on my meat (that’s what he said?)

Do I recommend Bigz, meh. The atmosphere is pretty cool and the pricing is pretty pretty decent, but it was pretty cold in that huge space. It’s not my favorite and I probably won’t be back for awhile, I’ll just try and “make it dirty” elsewhere. EAT IT if you must, sigh.

Big’z Burger Joint
2303 N. Loop 1604 W.
San Antonio, Texas 78258

Alas the doublecheeseblogger returns from the busy nothing of life! Everyone listen to me, today in the soggy drip of the day I headed to Freddy’s the frozen custard and steakburger fast food dive on Potranco. I would like to give you a delicious report on the tasty steakburger, however I was a little disappointed in the thinness of the patty. I could barely taste the ground beef surrounded by all the toppings. I had ordered the California Burger combo, a single patty (bad decision) with onions, tomato, lettuce, Freddy’s special sauce (tasted like thousand island), and cheese. All those ingredients overpowered the thin patty. I think it was delicious, in a double patty burger I’m pretty sure it would be great, however the burger in a single number is no bueno.

The fries are anorexic thin but darn it they aren’t addictive. Throw some seasoned salt on those skinny little potato bits or don’t you’ll find yourself inhaling them all. Would I go back, I guess. I’d definitely try a bigger burger and add some bacon, but it’s not the first burger chain to come to mind when I’m jonesing for some cheesy beef goodness. Eat it? I guess.

Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers
8843 Potranco
San Antonio, TX 78245
(210) 520-2436

There isn’t much new I can tell you about Top Notch on Burnet Rd in Austin, TX. Nothing has really changed there since the 70s. However, why would you want to change something that is so right. Charbroiled burgers, golden onion rings that are not the least bit greasy, a steady amount of regular patrons that give the place its own Texas seasoning, and a decor to match your favorite Texas steakhouse three decades ago make Top Notch an interesting experience before you’ve even ordered your burger. The biggest impression is left by the sweet charbroil aroma that fills the atmosphere of the restaurant. Knowing that anything this place serves up is gonna be as delicious as it’s conviction to decor I ordered the Longhorn Special.

This double meat, special sauce, lettuce, tomato, onions (not on mine), and cheese burger, add bacon hit home. It had an all American feel. There was an amount of care and pride in the burger. The Stanish family has been running this business for decades and they love what they do and it shows. The cheese was melted perfectly and the bacon was cooked to perfection. The special sauce mingling with the lettuce and tomato gave the burger a fresh taste that let the two patties be delicious and not overwhelming. It has been said over a hundred times and I can only concur that Top Notch is serving one of the absolute best burgers in Austin. My onion rings were some of the best I’ve had. Not greasy, just golden and perfectly ketchup dippable.

Top Notch has had its share of celebrity. If you’ve ever seen the Linklater hit “Dazed and Confused” then you’ve seen Top Notch’s big screen debut. Local artists have also taken some inspiration from the diner such as Jennifer Balkan and George Boutwell. It is a staple in the Austin community. A place that values pride and Americana. James Stanish, who began working at Top Notch for 50 cents an hour as a bus boy when he was 12, took over the business after his father. Stanish sadly passed away this past November, however a legacy has been left behind of quality service and product. Please go EAT IT and enjoy a burger that is quite possibly burger perfection.

Top Notch Hamburgers
7525 Burnet Rd
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 452-2181